Texas Wine Country 2014: Some Dodged the Bullet, Some Not

Most people in Texas would agree that Texas is a hot sunny place most of the time. They would also likely agree with the idea that Texas winegrowing has more in common with similarly sunny places like Spain, south of France and Italy than with the cool clime of Burgundy. However, in my opinion, something that we don’t emphasize enough when talking about Texas as a winegrowing region is the “hard stop” caused by the persistent late spring freezes that limits our native wine industry.

Last night was a good example of one such hard stop. Thankfully, it wasn’t a complete train wreck like Texas wine growers experienced last year, probably the worst string of late spring freezes in the modern records. But, last night’s freeze it still hurt, some more than others.

For winegrowers on the high plains around Lubbock, reported temperatures were well below 32 F. A report came in that the “vast majority of buds are tight” and freeze tolerant. However, temperatures were variant and for some early-budding grape varieties and vineyard in low lying areas, “this one’s going to hurt”. Read more HERE